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E39 (1997 - 2003) The BMW 5-Series (E39 chassis) was introduced in the United States as a 1997 model year car and lasted until the 2004 when the E60 chassis was released. The United States saw several variations including the 525i, 528i, 530i and 540i. -- View the E39 Wiki

as indicated in my other post, I took out my driver seat to fix the twist seat

I must admit that I spent a long time "fixing" the cable ends of the motor that control seat height (wrong motor, the little one) at least I did not cause any damage

Later I started working on the other motor, there has to be that one!! (large one)

ok, I disengaged the cable from the motor and pulled the inner cable outwards and found what is shown in the picture, the cable pulls all the way out!!!!. I did not try all the way but I am sure it would come out of the sheath.

The short cable (shown in the picture for comparison) belongs to the height controller, for which I cannot pull the inner cable outwards

Pulling out cable is normal, the cable is square on both ends you can even flip flop the cable it does matter. The other end goes to the gear box and the cable fix doesn't always work if your gears are stripped, because like most other bmw parts they are made of low quality plastic.

On mine, I didn't unscrew anything. Once I confirmed which cable had the problem, I just used a cigarette lighter to heat the ferrule on the motor end of the cable, jerked the cable out, cut about 3/8 inch off the black sheath, heated the ferrule again and shoved it back in. Fixed, just that quick.

on my 2001 525i, i got sports seats, manual ones. im actually glad they manual. less problems...
on my previous ride i had a e30 325i, which i fitted front electric sports seats from a 1997 M3.
i eventually had one of the gears stripped, was finnicky to replace...eventually replaced it though.. when i sold the car though, the driver side seat gear also had a problem (the dredded e36 electric seat recline gear)

i had no idea e39 electric seats also gave issues... again..hehe im glad ive got sports seats of the manual variety (has up/down,tilt,recline,forward/back)

on my 2001 525i, i got sports seats, manual ones. im actually glad they manual. less problems...
on my previous ride i had a e30 325i, which i fitted front electric sports seats from a 1997 M3.
i eventually had one of the gears stripped, was finnicky to replace...eventually replaced it though.. when i sold the car though, the driver side seat gear also had a problem (the dredded e36 electric seat recline gear)

i had no idea e39 electric seats also gave issues... again..hehe im glad ive got sports seats of the manual variety (has up/down,tilt,recline,forward/back)

lighter weight so you have that performance advantage. BMW sneakily put that kind of stuff in the 525.. sleeper

With 1 person driving the car I could live with the manual seats but if you have other drivers then its a real pain.

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can you help me on my case sir's.. i checked on the cables already and its still good.. the motor is working but all of the right side of the driver seat is not working.. it seems like my seat just had a stroke.. LOL.. can someone help me pls.. thanks!!

I just finished this repair myself and, let me start by saying, it was a major pain. The #1 thing you will need is patience. If you don't have it, forget it. My passenger side seat had a problem when trying to recline and when trying to elevate. Therefore, both motors were affected. I decided to do it the "harder way", by removing both of the motors and cutting the sheath back on ALL FOUR connections. (IMO, You do not want to go back in there! Trust me. Do them all now! Even the sides that work! Eventually they may fail.)

After careful consideration, I decided not to remove the seat from the car or disconnect the power. I ended up placing the twisted seat up against the back seat to get a good look underneath. I then placed a board underneath the twisted seat to brace it so that it wouldn't fall back forward.

Tips

-The smaller your hands are the better. It is really tight under there. Also you might want to wear some sort of gloves. There is a lot of rough metal parts and you can get your hands cut up easily. (I did, live and learn)

-There was a metal bracket that I had to bend in order to get to one or two of the bolts. It had some plastic housing attached to it with wires. I had to remove the plastic housing so that I could bend the metal. You'll know it when you see it. I just bent it back after I was finished.

-Take note of the location of the Bosch label on the motor so you can put it back in correctly.

-If you remove both motors at the same time, make sure you mark which cords go to each motor.

-Before finishing, make sure you bring both sides of the seat up in order to even them out. Once you put the cords back in you will not be able to do it. (After cutting the sheath and replacing the connector, put one cord in at a time and bring each side all the way up. This will even out both sides of the seat)

-Make sure you apply enough heat to the metal connector on each cord. It must be hot enough so that it can be put all the way back onto the sheath. That connector has teeth that cut into the sheath in order to stay in place. If you don't get it back on fully, then shortening the sheath did nothing. The cord will not stick out enough to engage the motor.

-One thing I wish that I had was a magnet of some kind. Putting the screws back in would have been so much easier.

You will be dealing with 4 per seat. 2 on left and 2 on right. Did both seats in 3 hours. Take your time and do it right. Don't cut sheaths in the middle and clamp them. Do it on the ends. I cut about 1/2 inch from each end. My seats had bottom and back twist. They work perfectly now.

So, my car has started to develop the twisted seat problem and I'm getting ready to fix it. From all the videos and postings on the internet that I've seen/read, the problem seems to be that the rubber tube/sheathing material expands over time and prevents the internal cable from making proper contact with the adjustment motors. The fix seems to be to shorten this tube/sheathing material to allow the internal cable to be exposed again. (correct me if my understanding is incorrect)

The solution seems fine, and it may not matter to most folks that the problem might reoccur in 10 yrs time, but being an engineer type, I just thought to myself, isn't there a better material that can be used that has better dimensional stability? For example, would some PEX tubing make a better sheathing material that would not expand over time? I don't have a Chem. Eng background or anything to do with polymers sciences, but thought maybe some fellow E39 owners might be and have some good ideas?

A new post to an old thread...my wife has a 2006 330i whose driver's seat has the dreaded twisted seat problem. The indy mechanic told us that the motor has fallen off, and the cable has broken off. We now need a whole new frame which costs $1100 plus labor to put back in the cushions seats etc.

Should I tell the indy mechanic not do the repair? Only my wife can use the seat as she's short and moving the seat back only makes the twisting worse, so I'm unable to drive the car.

On my 2002 525i, the same mechanic was able to just do the usual cut the cable and re-insert into the motor...fixed it for $200, but he says this seat is worse.

Any suggestions?

I have done this repair several times. Seat in, seat out, just removed 1/4" outer sheath from middle of cable not disconnecting either end. I don't see this mentioned, but on some broken seat functions, you can loosen seat rear bolts, remove two front seat bolts and tip seat backwards allowing access. Find where seat is level, even, whatever. Leave it there. Find bad cable and melt away about 1/4" anywhere in cable allowing center spline room to extend back into motor or gearbox. You can then use a cable tie that will kinda force cable sheath back together, tape, and then try. Center cable really *wants* to engage in both ends but the stretching outer sheath pulls one end of cable back and out of its mate. Takes very little to make cable *jump* back into engaging at both ends again. Using the motor makes the cable actually drive itself lengthwise. oh, forgot reason for posting-old age. Your indy is stroking you as he doesn't know what is wrong, but for your $1100 dollars he feels safe he can fix any issue or take to another shop, get fixed for him, and return car to you fixed and he is richer. Motor loose??!! Hardly. Save your $$$#

A new post to an old thread...my wife has a 2006 330i whose driver's seat has the dreaded twisted seat problem. The indy mechanic told us that the motor has fallen off, and the cable has broken off. We now need a whole new frame which costs $1100 plus labor to put back in the cushions seats etc.

What do the folks here at bimmerfest think about this?

Jeffmgr

If you cannot be without a car; for that money, rent a cheap one for 2 days while you take out the bimmer seat for a DIY fix

A new post to an old thread...my wife has a 2006 330i whose driver's seat has the dreaded twisted seat problem. The indy mechanic told us that the motor has fallen off, and the cable has broken off. We now need a whole new frame which costs $1100 plus labor to put back in the cushions seats etc.

What do the folks here at bimmerfest think about this?

Jeffmgr

This problem is different from the usual twisted seat issue which involves the seat back and/or the seat bottom twisting if adjusted for rake (seat back) or height (seat bottom cushion). From your description it sounds like the seat frame has broken, etc., etc. as it is rare to have a problem with the whole seat moving back and forth.

So you need to find someone who can repair (weld) the frame and reattach the motor, cable. I have welded a seat frame on a manual seat before and had no problems after the repair. I did not have to take any upholstery off, just had to be careful. Of course, the seat has to come out of the car for inspection to see if it can be repaired. Maybe an auto upholstery shop would be a better place to go. At the shop I used to work at, we usually sent seat problems to the upholstery shop as they were more skilled in that kind of repair.

On the other hand excellent condition seats in the correct color and style are available used on eBay or on www.car-part.com for probably less $ than a repair would cost unless you DIY. Certainly $300 would buy a good used seat.

Bottom line is that you'll have to do the research and find out whether to replace or repair.